LouisianaVoice kicks off fundraiser with goal of $20k

It’s that time again and LouisianaVoice is requesting your help in this our second fund drive of the year.

In its six-plus years of existence, LouisianaVoice has broken many stories and has also been there to explain and expand other stories so that you, the reader, may have a better grasp of the hows and whys of state politics. By examining the inter-relationship between policy and politics, I feel LouisianaVoice has shone a light on official misconduct that has revealed:

The strong connections between campaign contributions and political appointments and contracts;

How an official “investigation” can be quietly thwarted simply by the selection of the person charged with conducting the investigation;

How campaign contributions to the right people by certain interests pay huge dividends;

How elected officials make generous use of campaign funds for non-campaign purposes;

How elected officials parlay their positions into lucrative private sector gains;

How those who take oaths to protect the interest of Louisiana citizens don’t always remain true to those oaths.

LouisianaVoice peels off the outer layers of state and local government to reveal the sordid underbelly of political wheeling and dealing the mainstream media seldom, if ever, reports.

LouisianaVoice was there first with numerous major stories:

There was the story of how State Sen. Neil Riser (currently a candidate for State Treasurer) slipped an amendment onto an otherwise benign bill in the waning minutes of the 2014 legislative session that would have given State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson an addition $100,000 per year in retirement benefits. The bill would have allowed Edmonson to revoke his so-called “irrevocable” action of locking in his retirement several years earlier. It would not have given that same opportunity to thousands of other state employees who had also signed up for the unique Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP). Because of our story (the result of an anonymous tip), the courts ruled Edmonson was not eligible for the special treatment.

Numerous other stories about Edmonson’s loosely-run Louisiana State Police (LSP) appeared on this site and this site only, including stories of troopers who had been fined for sneaking an underaged woman into a Mississippi casino and subsequently promoted; a trooper who was hooked on prescription drugs and using them while on duty and was subsequently promoted; a trooper who engaged in sexual activity in his patrol car and received only token punishment, and of a trooper who repeatedly was asleep in his bed when he was supposed to be on patrol.

Those stories were capped with the infamous San Diego trip by 17 state troopers to see Edmonson win a national award. Four of those troopers went by car and took a side trip to the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon and to Las Vegas. Only after that story broke did Gov. Edwards finally step in to force Edmonson’s retirement.

LouisianaVoice broke the story of how Troy Hebert used his position as head of the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) to coerce a restaurant manager in New Orleans to have sex with him in exchange for his granting her restaurant a liquor license.

LouisianaVoice broke the story that revealed that Superintendent of Education John White had entered into a surreptitious agreement with Rupert Murdoch to provide personal student information to Murdoch’s company, News Corp., the parent company of Fox News.

We also broke stories that illustrated how State Sen. Conrad Appel profited by investing in a Microsoft program just as his committee approved the program for use in Louisiana schools and we showed how State Rep. Chris Broadwater who previously oversaw the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) went to work for SAS, a consulting firm within weeks of his office’s awarding a $4.2 million contract to the firm.

We wrote about how former Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols, skating perilously close to violation of the state’s ethics laws, took a job with Ochsner Health System after the Division of Administration under her watch signed a contract that contained, among other things, including 50 blank pages, provisions for Ochsner to assist Southern Regional Medical Corp., whose only member is Terrebonne General Medical Center, in the operation of Leonard Chabert Medical Center.

Only LouisianaVoice published a complete list of oil and gas contributions to each legislator that showed precisely why legislators were reluctant to pursue litigation against oil companies for destroying our marshes and coastal waterways.

And of course, LouisianaVoice wrote extensively about how Bobby Jindal attempted to railroad former ATC Director Murphy Painter because Painter refused to circumvent state requirements in order to issue a liquor permit for Tom Benson’s Champion Square. Jindal not only fired Painter, but even went so far as to trump up criminal charges against Painter, who was acquitted after a federal trial.

LouisianaVoice does not accept advertising for obvious reasons (though I have noticed that WordPress has of late begun slipping ads in at the bottom of my stories—against my wishes and certainly not to my financial gain).

Our only alternative is to charge a monthly or yearly subscription fee, which I am holding off doing as long as possible because I want LouisianaVoice stories to be available to anyone who wishes to read them.

Only through your generous support can I continue to do what I do. What started initially as a blog devoted solely to news about state agencies, has mushroomed into requests to investigate local government, including courts, judges, school boards, sheriffs’ offices and even cold case murders.

I sincerely attempt to look into all requests (except matters involving family disputes; I leave that to the family courts). This takes time and money. I am encountering more and more resistance to my requests for public records which in turn, is going to require legal action. That costs money.

Out of town trips are not free and gasoline is not cheap.

Your financial support is the only thing that keeps LouisianaVoice churning out stories about official wrongdoing.

Our goal is $20,000.

You can give by credit card by clicking on the yellow “Donate” button at the right or you can mail your contribution to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, LA. 70727

If you value freedom of the press and if you appreciate what we do, please help keep the stories coming.

I read your articles because I thought you were exposing corruption but I have my doubts now! You don’t investigate! You listen to irate employees that can’t have their way and you print lies not facts. You are a whore in business clothes..

You don’t know me very well. I’m a jeans and T-shirt man who avoids business suits like the plague.

But certainly, I do receive tips from employees unhappy with their agencies—like State Police, State Fire Marshal, etc. But before I write a word, I do indeed investigate, your accusation notwithstanding. I have paid hundreds of dollars for public records and my posts are based on those records—not disgruntled employees’ claims alone.

An example of my citing records and not relying on “irate employees” would be my report on the expenditures of your agency, the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal. Everything I wrote on that story was from public records I obtained from your employer. And there’s no denying that Henry Rayborn did resign over the flak from the St. Tammany fire fatality. The fact he later reconsidered and came back does not change that fact.

But since you’ve accused me of lying, give me one example of a lie that I’ve written. I’ll wait.

Oh my God, I am going get some popcorn and candy because I KNOW this is going to be good. I know that Mr. Tom checks things out BEFORE he writes anything because that is what he did with what I sent to him.

What I added on was my own doing and I stand by every damn word of it.

I just went and get me one big soft cushion because I think we are in for a long, long wait.

Mr. Aswell, you have lied again. Henry Rayborn did not resign!! If you investigated this incident then show me the letter of resignation or a text that Mr. Rayborn resigned??? This is my last email to you but to your sources get some balls and sign your name to the email. Please in the future, don’t criticize deputies like myself that bust their butts off so that the public can be safe.

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LouisianaVoice does not accept advertising because we insist on an independent voice. Likewise, we do not charge a subscription fee for our blog.
That is not to say we do not have expenses—lots of them. Moreover, we would love to add a reporter to provide even better coverage of the underbelly of Louisiana politics.
Your contribution would help us immensely in meeting our growing expenses. Simply click on the “Donate” button here and contribute whatever you feel appropriate.
Thank you.
Tom Aswell, Publisher

Got a tip?

Got a news lead for LouisianaVoice to investigate? Have a suggestion for a story? Your identity will never be revealed. Just send an email to louisianavoice@cox.net